Tornadoes · United States · Michigan · 2006

F0 tornado, Schoolcraft, Michigan, May 10, 2006

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Kalamazoo County on May 10, 2006, touching down at 3:40 PM EDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
May 10, 2006
Touchdown
3:40 PM EDT (19:40 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Kalamazoo County
Touchdown point
42.120, -85.630
Lift-off point
42.120, -85.630
Record number
512

What the Weather Service recorded

A very brief touchdown of a F0 tornado occurred two miles south southwest of Schoolcraft in an open field. This was a landspout type of weak tornado which resulted in no injuries and no significant damage.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:32 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Detroit, MI (KDTX), 12:00Z

7.7 hours before the tornado, 193 km from the path. May 10, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 12:00Z on 2006-05-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 9 joules per kilogram, CIN -80, lifted condensation level 1028 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Detroit, MI at 12:00Z on 2006-05-10The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 56 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
9 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-80 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1028 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
56 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
54 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Detroit, MI (KDTX), 00:00Z

4.3 hours after it, 193 km from the path. May 11, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 00:00Z on 2006-05-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 152 joules per kilogram, CIN -37, lifted condensation level 1224 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Detroit, MI at 00:00Z on 2006-05-11The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 67 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
152 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-37 J/kg
Surface CAPE
227 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1224 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
67 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
76 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Northern Indiana radar (KIWX), 85 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:38 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
19:40 UTCTORNADO2 Sw SchoolcraftKalamazoo, MIBRIEF F0 TORNADO TOUCHDOWN APPROX 340 PM EDT NEAR SCHOOLCRAFT IN KALAMAZOO COUNTY. TOUCHDOWN IN AN OPEN FIELD NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF 10TH STREET AND XY AVENUE.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 10, 2006

19 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 101:40 AM CDTF1Okmulgee, OK0.575$70,000
May 1010:03 AM CDTF0Dallas, AR3.525
May 102:44 PM CDTF1Marengo, AL2.6150$20,000
May 104:27 PM CDTF2Catahoula Parish, LA8.0250$250,000
May 104:35 PM CDTF0Victoria, TX0.575
May 104:35 PM CDTF0Tensas Parish, LA2.050$60,000
May 104:59 PM CDTF0Fort Bend, TX0.220$2,000
May 105:03 PM CDTF0Adams, LA to MS5.050
May 105:08 PM CDTF0Vanderburgh, IN5.275
May 106:20 PM EDTF0Highland, OH0.530$30,000
May 105:40 PM CDTF0White, IL2.550
May 105:49 PM CDTF2Jefferson, MS7.0440$120,000
May 105:58 PM CDTF0Posey, IN2.560
May 106:08 PM CDTF0Warrick, IN0.250$2,000
May 106:08 PM CDTF0Clarke, AL0.130$10,000
May 106:17 PM CDTF0Warrick, IN0.250$1,000
May 106:22 PM CDTF0Gibson, IN2.750
May 106:34 PM CDTF0Kenedy, TX0.120
May 106:49 PM CDTF1Dubois, IN1.4100$150,000

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.